Evangelical Hispanics turn from GOP

“House Republicans knew that leaders of liberal Hispanic organizations would castigate them for passing hard-edged legislation last December calling for 700 miles of new fencing on the U.S.-Mexican border and for elevating illegal immigration to a felony and making it a permanent disqualifier for American citizenship. What they didn’t foresee was that the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., one of the most prominent Hispanic evangelicals to support President Bush’s re-election, would turn against their party.

The 48-year-old Baptist minister heads Esperanza USA, which bills itself as the nation’s largest Hispanic faith-based community- development organization. It controls Nueva Esperanza (Spanish for “new hope”), a Philadelphia-based network of social services, including a charter high school, a community college, and a $28 million economic development program.”

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